The escape room puzzles have always been an exceptional fit for VR. Due to the sense of immersion, it puts you right into the virtual space of needing to escape, while making the dangers feel real. With the series I Expect You To Die from Schell Games, this has been presented and expounded on with each release. The method of just trying what seems right and what should be right has always led to great success in each stage of these games, and I am happy to say the same can be said for the latest release in the series I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine.
The opening sequence, while not as immersively satisfying, has struck an outstanding balance of immersion and visual opulence that really pushes the intro sequence to the next level. The soul-filled “Cog in the Machine,” sung by Haley Reinhart, is fantastic and does such an excellent job of setting up our villain for this game, Dr. Roxana Prism, as well as setting the stakes for the agent as needed to prove and outdo the robotic agents. I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine has easily the best intro sequence as a whole package in the entire series.
As for when we, as the agent, actually get a hold of the reigns and start making our way through the story of I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine, it is the most difficult the series has been; not from a mechanics standpoint but from a mental exercise standpoint. The way in which we need to piece clues together while maintaining our calm is at a level we have yet to see before. It comes from the evolution of the series, and Schell Games is at its best here.
They have found a way to perfect an already great series. The interactivity in each level is to a point when nearly everything you see that is not background noise can be interacted with in an exciting way. Leading to hilarious moments of playfulness that I was able to lose myself in.
“I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine has easily the best intro sequence as a whole package in the entire series.”
As for the story itself, it can be taken a few ways. If this is your first entry into the series, you might as well not really pay attention to the story. This is completely fine, and it is still fun as heck to go through these brain-teaser levels. But, if you have been following the story, things get incredibly interesting. After the supposed death of Agent Phoenix (the player) at the end of I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Layer, a body was never recovered, so there was always suspicion that we had survived.
Now that Dr. Roxana Prism has teamed up with the Zoraxis company bent on taking over the world. It is up to the recently recovered Agent Phoenix to stop her and her Robotic creations. I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine takes an interesting idea from the Resident Evil franchise in this outing. In almost every level there is a certain Robotic Anti-Agent that you will have to deal with, and it creates this tension in each stage where you are unsure where this hulking stalker might appear. While usually to commercial effect, his appearance always leads to the most high-intensity moments.
“While the majority of I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine is spent on puzzles, sometimes drawn out into multilayered escape rooms, there is also an added level of emotion with the story…”
For example, during the third mission, when you are driving a car down a highway trying to disable a Zoraxis truck, dodging fire sprouts, and having to bob and weave under the truck, the robot shows up. Setting himself in self-destruct mode, it is up to us to disarm him. This employs an overload of the senses but also puts a strain on the mechanics of having to drive the car, read instructions, and puzzle your way through his innards. We have not seen something like this in the I Expect You To Die series before, and I thought that it was some of the most satisfying gameplay elements of the game.
While the majority of I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine is spent on puzzles, sometimes drawn out into multilayered escape rooms, there is also an added level of emotion with the story, which was surprising because up until now, the storyline in the series had been interesting, yes, but on the sillier side. I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine doesn’t ditch those vibes by any means, but they have also evolved the way they can tell a story, and it’s apparent, particularly in the later sections of the game where there were some genuine heart-tugging scenes.
Overall, I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine is easily the best in the series. I would even go as far as to say the best in VR space. I Expect You To Die has always been a selling point for VR for myself, and I can gladly say Schell Games just keeps raising that bar. With an excellent soundtrack, surprisingly deep story and level design ingenuity that is rarely seen especially in VR, I Expect You To Die 3: Cog In The Machine is now my favourite VR game.
